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This blog is my attempt to observe and learn about human behaviours. You can read more about why I’ve started it here.

The title of my blog comes from an observation of my own behaviour, that despite all the technology available to me, telling me exactly when my bus is due, I like to get to the bus stop five minutes early. It is only now that I’ve stopped to think about this, that I am questioning why I am happy to essentially waste five minutes of my day standing at a bus stop!

A year ago I wrote a proposal for innovation funding to explore how you could make public transport an easy choice for new parents and those with young children. I am now writing this blog post at 7 1/2 months pregnant and pondering whether I’m really going to be able to achieve my own desire to be a multi-modal mom!Continue reading

I don’t subscribe to many podcasts but a few months ago I came across the Harvard Business Review’s ‘Women at Work’ podcast series. My interest was piqued and I downloaded Series 1. Series 2 has just kicked off and I’d honestly recommend it to everyone. Focusing on a different theme each episode, the hosts discuss their experiences of being women in the workplace but also examine formal research in the area. (Much of which is available on HBR). Obviously, these podcasts are part of a much bigger movement which is questioning topics including women’s position in society, inequalities and sexual harassment.

I’ve taken something from every Women at Work podcast episode. I’ve got to say that I work in a super, small and inclusive team although I still find the wider transport sector to be too male-dominated particularly given the fact that we are trying to design inclusive transport systems. The Women at Work discussions have prompted me to see and then question the inherent biases – expectations, cultures and perceptions – facing women in the work environment. I’m sometimes surprised by the things that I hadn’t previously recognised. For example, in the first episode of Series 2, the hosts discuss the fact that women, in general, spend more of their working hours on ‘non-promotable tasks’ than men at the same level of seniority. These are tasks including office housework (like watering the office plants, ordering lunch, and taking the minutes in meetings) as well as many other routine jobs which don’t support career progression. The patterns here are complex and include the fact that women tend to feel the pressure to volunteer for these jobs more than men, but also that they are asked to do them more often by managers (and are reluctant to say no when asked). It’s easy to see why men might progress faster in organisations if they’ve had more time to concentrate on promotable tasks compared to their female counterparts.

I’m left examining my own actions and attitudes as a woman who wants to keep her career progressing, but also as a colleague to other women. I think it is important to note though, that we shouldn’t have to be anything different – we shouldn’t act more ‘male’ – but that our work environments should see the value in a diverse workforce and allow all to prosper.

On a related note, I’m also excited to be starting to read Deep Work by Cal Newport which examines the distractions we face while working and our tendency to low-value, shallow work. More on this once I’ve finished the book!

The ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) World Congress is a pretty big deal in the public transport world. The 2018 Congress has just been held in Copenhagen and I was excited to attend to present a paper that I had accepted and to take part in this global discussion about the future of transport.

There has been a perceivable change in the themes covered in the ITS Congress’ sessions over recent years, reflecting a wider industry shift towards ‘mobility’ and ‘service’ instead of ‘transport’, ‘vehicles’ and ‘operations’. With the theme of this year’s Congress being ‘Quality of Life’, a citizen-centric approach was apparent across many of the presentations I attended.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a hot topic at the moment and is an area I am actively engaged in. At its most simple I would describe MaaS as an approach to reduce single-occupancy car use by making it much easier for people to be aware of, and combine, a mix of alternative modes, which together can match the car for ease and convenience. It was impressive to see so many session dedicated to, or including discussion of, MaaS and while not everyone is in agreement about the approach to delivering MaaS, the conversations are definitely moving forward. However, it wasn’t strictly a MaaS presentation that has stuck most firmly in my mind.

The very last session I attended, was one I selected on the spur of the moment, but I’m very glad I spotted it on the Programme. It was called ‘Better Mobility with Public Transport’ and included three excellent presentations about activities being undertaken by HSL (the Helsinki Region Transport Authority), Ruter (the public transport authority for Oslo and Akershus counties) and Movia (the Greater Copenhagen public transport authority). These agencies have been supporting each other in refining their direction and approach to public transport delivery.

It was a story from Endre Angelvik at Ruter, which really caught my attention although all were clearly undertaking some excellent work. Endre talked about their desire to reduce single-occupancy car use, but instead of being caught up in MaaS or another technical solution, they’d had taken a broader approach. They’d noted that trip chaining (i.e. stopping at multiple points along your journey for different tasks such as picking up some shopping on your way home from work) was actually one of the biggest challenges to reducing car use in their Region. At the same time, they had some issues to solve around the transportation of children to after-school activities and then to their homes afterwards. By putting on a relatively simple minibus service, which the kids paid for using a usual child’s monthly travel pass, they quickly solved the problem of getting them home. It also boosted inclusion for children whose parents may not have otherwise been able to get them to/from these activities. However, the even greater knock-on effect is that the kids’ service removed the main chain in the evening commutes of the parents. This meant more parents could leave their cars at home that day and take public transport.

In some ways, this all seems so simple and commonsensical. However, this type of approach doesn’t happen often enough. All too often we get caught up in finding a technological fix, and miss the wider opportunities. I found it inspiring to listen to Endre and his Nordic colleagues and am sure I will now question our transport challenges and solutions even more thoroughly.

I’ve always enjoyed reading, ever since I was young when I wished I lived in America and went to ‘Sweet Valley High’. However, it was only usually during holidays that I would devour a pile of novels as quickly as possible. This year, my New Year’s Resolution was to try to read 25 books in the year. Now I know for some proper bookworms, this probably doesn’t sound a lot, but for me, one book every two weeks or so seemed like an ambitious target. I was fuelled on in part by my new commute, which resulted in me sitting on the bus for over an hour most days. I’d had enough of gazing out of the window and felt frustrated with using this time to keep checking emails before and after my working day.

The impact of my New Year’s Resolution has been much greater than I imagined. It’s early November and I have now almost finished with my 24th book of the year. I’ve nearly always got a book in my bag. I don’t read on every single bus journey, sometimes I’m just too tired, but on the vast majority, you will find me engrossed in my latest literary choice. I now look forward to my bus journeys rather than seeing it as a chore. I’ve also noticed that it seems to be helping my day-to-day stress levels. It’s proving a nicer way to start and end the day and allows me to turn-off my work brain as I head home for the evening. I’m sure I sleep better too when I read as I go to sleep. A recent article in The Simple Things magazine, explains that reading can become a form of mindfulness – I most definitely agree!

Beyond these great personal benefits, I’m also enjoying the wider impact of books. I’ve hardly read anything on my Kindle this year; the good old paperback is my medium of choice. I enjoy receiving other people’s recommendations and passing books on to others who I think will enjoy them. My mom and I have been drip-feeding each other with books throughout the year. I’m talking about books with friends and colleagues much more, and finding new, common interests this way. I’ve always enjoyed a riffle through charity shop bookshelves and can now do this without any guilt, knowing I probably will get around to reading the book I’m about to buy, rather than it ending up on my bookshelf, unread for years. I look forward to buying and reading even more books next year! I’ve kept a note of the books I’ve read this year, but next year my plan is to write a proper review of each one.

I’m regularly travelling for work these days and can certainly notice that the more I travel, the less anxious I feel about missing connections or being delayed etc. However, on Friday I was glad that I’ve not become too relaxed, and left work a little earlier than required to get to the airport. I had decided to take the tram. I have my Ridacard so the tram is free all the way to the airport (as in many cities, paying passengers have to pay a premium to take the whole route to the airport). As it was approaching rush hour, I thought the tram would be a safe option because it doesn’t have too many points where it can get stuck in traffic. It’s also super easy when you are dragging a suitcase along behind you. However, Friday’s trip wasn’t the most user friendly. Here follows my (slightly long winded) account of the journey.Continue reading

Customer experience is being increasingly considered by transport operators. There are many elements that need to come together for a journey to be an excellent experience. Here’s my own observation of where a design decision is having unintended negative impacts on bus travel.Continue reading

I am not usually a big user of taxis, but because of this week’s work commitments I’ve needed to travel early in the morning and late at night on a few occasions so I’ve opted to use taxis. However, these weren’t just any taxis, they were Gett taxis. I decided to document my experience of using Gett.

I was recently out for a walk on a lovely beach not far from Edinburgh. There were plenty of people out walking their dogs or playing with their kids. Not a single person said ‘hello’ to anyone else, even as they were passing.

At the end of the beach, the sand ended and a path lead us away from the shore. The narrow path cut through some bushes and across grassy land. Suddenly everyone started to say ‘hello’ to one another.

It was really noticeable to me. I guess it was something about the increased level of proximity. On the path the space was shared and people had to acknowledge one another.

It started off on interesting conversation between my mom and me about how public space is changing because so many people aren’t really ‘present’ in public space when they are off in their own virtual worlds (aided by smartphones). However, I’ll leave that for another post!

Prior to becoming self-employed I worked for a company who kindly included a bus pass (Edinburgh’s Ridacard) as one of our employment benefits. I certainly appreciated it at the time, but only realised quite how great a benefit it was once I had to give it up. Becoming self-employed meant I would be working from home for the vast majority of the time, and would only need to travel to the occasional meeting. There was no sense in having a monthly pass, but I quickly missed it.

After the bus pass, there were two main options available to me:

Good old cash – pop £1.50 into the farebox and away you go, or

Download the mobile ticketing app, where you purchase at least £10 worth of tickets which you then redeem as you need them by activating it in the app and showing your smart phone’s screen to the driver.